Around the playoffs and leading up to the Super Bowl, we start seeing and hearing more of the old NFL Films highlight reels from the ’60s and ’70s. The urgent, uptempo orchestral music, the grainy film, the Cowboys, Dolphins, Raiders and the Steelers.

I was watching one of those highlight reels over the summer and decided like how teams bring back old jerseys, maybe I should bring back some old snack and side recipes this season. They were a hit. Not fussy, just reminders to the parties our parents used to through when we were very little, of the snacks our aunts brought to picnics and tailgates, the salad our grandmothers always made.

In some cases, some of us are still making this type of classic entertainment fare. My friend Becky emailed for advice on how to jazz up a dip her mother has been making for decades the other week and I had to laugh, it was the most ’70s of dips I’d ever seen. Ritz crackers, cheese, clams; I would not been have surprised to seen V05 and Halston listed with the rest of the ingredients in her dip. (Speaking of Becky and the most ’70s things, she contributed a great mango and chipotle guacamole recipe last year to my Super Bowl Guacamole Extravaganza that I refer to as The Velvet Glove of Guacs. Go check it out, it’s really good.)

For today’s Throwback Football Foodie, we have a classic macaroni salad, deli roll ups and a stuffed baguette, some of the most appropriate foods to spill all over your Larry Csonka Dolphin jersey.

Throwing my hat in the ring for Blue Plate mayo. I was always a Miracle Whip guy, but a friend from Texas gave me some Blue Plate and consequently started a party in my mouth that everyone was invited to. Not sure if you can only get it in Texas, but I know I can’t get it in LA.

Blue Plate is headquartered in New Orleans. The old factory in Mid City was shuttered after Hurricane Katrina and since has been transformed into residential lofts. I think it is still made in Louisiana, so areas in and around the South are where you will find it in stores. You may be able to order it online: http://blueplatemayo.com/site.php

I’m not sure if I’m happy or not that there was no giant Jello mold here. Nothing says throwback to me near as much as that, and yet it is also slightly horrifying. I have old 1960s cookbooks with radioactive-colored photographs of jello salads that will burn their way into your culinary nightmares.

Now I feel like busting out my recipe for Tater Tot casserole. It has the daily double of Tater tots AND cream of mushroom soup. Plus it’s, you know, a casserole. Ma cooked nothing but casseroles during 1972-1977

You could go for the trifecta by using Velveeta but Jack cheese works best

I know that there are college courses devoted to food anthropology and I can basically see the same thing continuing to this day. It starts with availability, either due to what you can afford or what you have been given to eat; this turns into familiarity and that turns into legacy. Look at southern food, or comfort food or soul food. My family legacy is lower middle-class, 4 very large boys and Ma had to cook every night legacy. My kids still love these damn throwback Grandmommie dishes.

Legacy based on browning a meat product with onion and garlic, salt and pepper, throw in a starch, a binding agent, a cheese if available, open a couple of cans from the cupboard, put in a casserole dish and bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes.

I would either be the worst “Chopped” contestant or I would have my own show, because I can turn any fucking thing into a casserole. Ma and the American Legion China Lake Little League Mother’s Pot Luck folks would be mighty proud.

There is something to also be said about the rise of “convenience” food during that period of time. Canned soups and meats meant you could get a dinner on a table in less than an hour, something unheard of in my great-grandmother’s time. (I have some and most of my great-grandmothers and grandmother’s old cookbooks. They’re pretty enjoyable reads.)

My friend Rob Iracane once said I could turn anything into a dip. I have no doubt that came from years of making casseroles.

Very astute point with convenience. We had no fast food places in my small ass town so if you were going to feed the kids you had to put something together and both of my parents worked. I have a collection from some of our old “groups”, VFW Pony league moms best recipes; Junior bowling league pot luck best of cook books. I just find it funny now that even though I have risen slightly above middle class and can afford to put together a prime rib and Maine lobster dinner and I have the knowledge to tell a bechamel from a beurre blanc that my kids still ask for Grandmommie’s casseroles.

My last tuna casserole I bought fresh tuna (not sushi grade because that would be a sacrilege) pressed my own noodles, made a bechamel, added fresh mushrooms, freshly grated pecorino romano and still used crushed Lay’s potato chips to put on top.
Walk off.

Speaking of walk-off, how’s my old buddy Iracane doing?

Tell him that he still rocks like an Iracane. Miss the old Deadspin days.